the white house events, declined by john boehner and mitch mcconnell. john boehner declined the invitations to six state dinners that people in washington are dying to go to one state dinner. really, senior house and senate members have never been to a state dinner, and the list goes on and on. >> i think if we could stipulate a number of things, one is this entire debate is basically based in lunacy. >> yeah, we can stipulate. >> start with that, and second it also represents a dangerous and dramatic change of the behavioral norms, the use of the dynamics -- >> remember, no one knew what it was? >> the good old days. >> that used to get raised routinely, and it tended to be a partisan vote, meaning the party that was not in power would vote against it. >> you made a point -- now they threaten default. and of course, the -- while we're having all of this, unemployment is still -- still an intractable problem that is not being addressed. so if you can stipulate all of that, i see for all of this lunacy, there is slight progress, you saw it in -- >> wait,